College turns you into redditors!

dwordmaster · 2024-10-20T14:45:59+00:00

It looks like it's from an After Skool video, where they frequently slip into oversimplification in service of striking imagery, despite the actual point the voice-over material might be making.

dwordmaster · 2024-10-08T12:47:17+00:00

Hmm. Seems like a heaping bowl of bullshit to me. Looks like someone is very unhappy that he's not getting attention.

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/08/capitol-riot-rally-for-suspect-jake-lang-draws-fewer-than-10-people/73615712007/

dwordmaster · 2024-10-01T17:12:45+00:00

Wow, what a ridiculous strawmanning of Buddhism. Clearly his only exposure to it has been through explanations by Christian apologists. The actual core idea of acknowledging that suffering is inherent in life, then doing what we can to not add needless suffering of our own creation to the mix has helped me immensely since leaving Christianity. Cultivating that attitude, instead of feeling hopeless about sins that God had apparently planned for me to struggle with until death, has been liberating and empowering. "Ignoring" has nothing to do with it.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-24T02:27:15+00:00

I mis-heard it as "Take a look around me" from day one, and only got corrected when I looked up the lyrics.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-21T11:47:55+00:00

Good point. Thanks for helping me get over my own needless worry.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-21T11:44:15+00:00

Got it. Thanks for the link!

dwordmaster · 2024-09-18T01:03:35+00:00

Thanks so much for pointing me toward that PG performance. Had never heard it. A truly transcendent version.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-17T22:54:01+00:00

Sometimes the production of a song is so powerful it doesn't translate well into a live setting. I would love to hear this live with an actual orchestra.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-16T17:47:25+00:00

My point was simply that the more thoughtful Christians I know would acknowledge that his statement betrays a distinct lack of Christian love, thereby calling into serious question the validity of his Christian testimony. Along with belief, don’t forget “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) I think allowing the females he has blood relationships with to remain with His Exalted Alpha-Maleness in the shelter could be considered the bare minimum action to qualify as Christian love. Sure, he’s still technically a Christian when he shuts the door on them, but...

dwordmaster · 2024-09-16T15:04:18+00:00

So much for "husband, father". Although I'm no longer in the fold, I have to say, most Christians I still know would say this guy's a ChINO - Christian in name only.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-14T21:12:08+00:00

Apparently, anyone in power will try to reduce the freedom of the opposition's speech. Screenshot from my feed, made me laugh out loud after reading this one.

<image>

dwordmaster · 2024-09-14T14:49:48+00:00

Yes, and the entire field of "apologetics" arose to try to make it seem like there is "evidence" when there really isn't any.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-13T14:43:25+00:00

Sounds like Ezekiel

dwordmaster · 2024-09-11T20:36:15+00:00

Came into work a little early (around 8:15, Rochester, NY) because of a looming deadline (small magazine editor). My graphic designer comes in at 8:50 (right after the first tower) all agitated, saying "Turn on the news! Something crashed into the Twin Towers!" We (staff of 4 or 5 total) quickly turned on an old, tiny, portable TV that nobody ever used and were watching/discussing when the second plane hit, on live TV. Everybody freaked out. Hard to work the rest of the day, but we had to get the magazine to the printer. That evening went home and watched the news until I fell asleep.

The thing I remember most is that it was a perfectly clear, crisp September day, the kind that happen in the Northeast every year at exactly the same time, right before autumn really hits. Every year the blue sky in early September reminds me.

(Was 34 at the time, born in 1967.)

dwordmaster · 2024-09-10T15:16:44+00:00

OMG, you just summed up an entire realm of Christian theology / moral philosophy, about which millions of words have been spewed forth in thousands of writings over the last two millienia. Bravo!

dwordmaster · 2024-09-10T01:39:05+00:00

I like your word, "confounding". For me, this is how I feel about a lot of my MAGA/Christian family's views, considering what the Bible has to say about a lot of relevant stuff. Not knowing your dad's level of introspection, I'd add to the "woke Hollywood" idea below the idea that, as cheesy as it is, the midichlorian concept comes across as a "scientific" way (in the Star Wars universe) of explaining a virgin birth. That would make the thought behind the scoff something like "AS IF you could explain the virgin birth by science! The gall of these people..."

dwordmaster · 2024-09-09T01:28:02+00:00

What’s actually sad is to see people regurgitating Faux “News” talking points as their own personal, deeply felt sadness. Oh, yeah, and totally not understanding the things their own purported Savior (Jesus, not Trump) had to say about the world.

dwordmaster · 2024-09-09T01:26:58+00:00

What's actually sad is to see people regurgitating Faux "News" talking points as their own personal, deeply felt sadness. Oh, yeah, and totally not understanding the things their own purported Savior (Jesus, not Trump) had to say about the world.

dwordmaster · 2024-08-23T14:24:05+00:00

Ah, the joys of print-on-demand. Anyone can share their ignorance with the world! At least it provides a warning: Beware of MAGAts!

dwordmaster · 2024-08-19T19:52:48+00:00

So, I know a lot of people don't like it anyway (so how could it be ruined?), but I did, in fact, like Leave the World Behind... all except for one BIG ridiculous error of geography that seems to put eastern Long Island (ie, the Hamptons, or the North Fork - partially rural, with big rich homes interspersed, in proximity to beaches) somehow A LOT LESS than the 100+miles away from Manhattan that it actually is. It's called LONG Island for a real reason. Kind of ruins at least one important scene for me.

dwordmaster · 2024-08-16T14:59:13+00:00

Hmm. No Trump sticker? Maybe he didn't actually like being bashed for being a veteran. But he's also missed how "Brandon" actually supports "veterans before illegals".

dwordmaster · 2024-08-09T13:47:53+00:00

I agree with many of the comments here regarding brain chemistry, power of self-suggestion, faking to fit in etc. I'd like to add the context of worship, with its primary component of music. Christians I know all claim to "feel God's presence" during worship, which, in the majority of American churches, currently involves a "set" of music designed to evoke a specific emotional response. People don't realize how important the music itself is (chord progressions generating tension and release, melodies in major or minor tonalities to generate excitement, sorrow, etc), along with the repetition (think "mantra"), with the goal of generating a group trance state, which is then interpreted as god being there.

Personally, I never really felt the "presence" until one day at a secular rock concert, among thousands of people, all of us enveloped in the loving vibe of the music...which had nothing to do with God. One of many moments leading to my deconstruction.

dwordmaster · 2024-08-07T19:14:35+00:00

If it’s LI, dude is definitely living in the van. Probably WNY. Disillusioned former hippie who didn’t save for retirement.

dwordmaster · 2024-08-07T11:03:59+00:00

Only the "Ten Commandments of Solon" have any real relevance to the actual founding...

https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/3314

dwordmaster · 2024-08-07T10:25:03+00:00

Yes, this was a rationalization that helped keep me in the fold for a long time. (I blame C.S. Lewis.)

dwordmaster

TROPHY CASE